A reality TV show starring Sydney neurosurgeon Dr Charlie Teo has received Australia’s top award for pseudoscience, for its “abysmal” portrayal of home health remedies.

The SBS series Medicine or Myth? involved ordinary Australians pitching home remedies — such as dried seahorse for treating asthma — to a panel of judges who decided whether the treatment should be subject to a scientific trial to determine its efficacy.

The judges included Dr Teo, along with GP and TV star Dr Ginni Mansberg, and immunologist Associate Professor Ashraful Haque, from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Queensland.

On Sunday, the program won the 2019 Bent Spoon award, presented every year by the Australian Skeptics for “most preposterous piece of pseudoscientific or paranormal piffle” of the year.